#to be entirely clear i'm not yet sure what exactly the watchers are in this au yet

[spacedustmantis]

witnesses grian joining the watchers, being mechanized by them and turned into a watcher, and then killing all of them bc they really fucking sucked, meaning that he's technically the last remaining watcher

[shantechni]

I'm Glad Miri is Annoying

Minor spoilers for Spy x Family and Buddy Daddies I guess idk

I don't know if people legitimately forgot this or what, but Anya is not your average child. And believe it or not, the majority of children who classify as "your average child" have more flaws than simply getting a big head when things are going their way. They're stubborn to a fault at times, they tend to be selfish at the benefit of no one other than themselves, and you feel the frustration radiating off of whoever is their guardian.

I'm glad that Buddy Daddies pulls no punches when depicting how chaotic life becomes once a 4 year old girl with a clear lack of disciplinary figures or actual parents comes waltzing in like a hurricane. I also loved when Sweetness and Lightning didn't paint Tsumugi as a child that was any easier to care for after the death of her mom, and that Kouhei (her dad) genuinely struggled to handle her on his own.

Beyond that though, the biggest problem I see floating around is that people for some reason expect a story about childrearing to not actually be about childrearing?? And that's not me saying that's the case with everyone, but it certainly seems like a lot of people have solidified Spy x Family as a standard of the sorts in their mind when it comes to depictions of found family dynamics, childcare, and adoption. That would be fine if people kept in mind that not every standard set by Spy x Family is realistic, both in the plot of a different series and irl. And that's not entirely the fault of the readers/watchers, it simply became one of the recently most popular titles to explore those themes in a way that balances out with other aspects of the story.

But that's just it: Spy x Family is not solely about a man, woman, little girl, and dog slowly developing into a family. It's about their impact on a war torn world and them realizing that this fake family they put together for the sole purpose of continuing their roles in preventing another war is becoming real. This was a situation that everyone (aside from Bond) initially saw as a way of escaping unlikely situations or reaching their goals. The focal point of the story from day 1 has been about these oblivious adults coming to understand that they're already a family, even though they don't exactly see it as such yet.

Meanwhile, Buddy Daddies is not about any of that, they're in a modernized world that one could easily imagine existing right now. These two hitmen are not in an unfavorable situation, they did not swipe Miri off the streets for personal gain, and they weren't really ever denying how quickly they grew attached to her. Kazuki took Miri under his wing the moment they locked eyes and she started talking about cake and her "papa," the guy is literally enamoured by her just from that. And Rei constantly asked Kazuki in the beginning if he was sure about sending Miri back to her mom, because he may not know everything about his partner, but it's clear as day to him that he really doesn't want to let her go. And as I said earlier, it hardly takes any time for Miri to wrap Rei around her little fingers either. The anime is 4 episodes in and they easily settled into the idea of being a family, heck, she already has her own room.

This is getting long and I'm starting to lose my point here because I'm not in a good area to focus in right now, so I'll end with this: Do not go into Buddy Daddies expecting an idealized version of a fake family turned real, because that's not what PA Works is doing here at all.

[coraniaid]

I think there's something fascinating about the evolution of Darla as a character in the Buffyverse.

It's very common in the Buffy fandom to talk about the show almost as if it were fully planned out from the beginning or somehow emerged fully-formed one day in its entirety.  To analyze Season 1 episodes as if the writers had already decided on the Heart/Mind/Spirit symbolism of the core Scooby Gang; to act as though a Season 5 retcon means that Spike was really in love with Buffy as early as Season 3's Lovers Walk; to suggest the constant changes in how the show deals with soul lore or vampires as a metaphor must mean that Giles and the Council were 'really' lying or ignorant in the first few seasons; to wonder what the Watchers Council introduced in Season 3 were doing in the show's first two seasons; to insist you can't really understand Season 1 until you've finished Season 7.

And, look, I totally get the temptation to do that sort of thing.  It's unavoidable if you want to talk about the universe of the show as a real thing in its own right, or try to write fanfiction that takes every season seriously.  It can be a useful and interesting way of thinking about the show.  I've done it myself and will no doubt keep doing it.

But at the same time, it's very misleading if you want to think about the show as a constructed work of collaborative art: as a piece of fiction in constant conversation with itself, shaped and reshaped again and again over years by a team of different people.  Which, to be clear, is what it actually is.

The real show is almost a piece of improv or some sort of conjuring act, with the writers and actors constantly juggling with new ideas and twists without any time to worry about how exactly everything fits together. With some episodes reportedly being written in only a handful of days and lore being continually changed and ignored as fits the current demands of the plot.  Questions like "how does soul lore really work?" or "after Prophecy Girl who is the real Slayer anyway?" ultimately can't be answered, because there simply is no single truth to uncover.  It depends entirely on the current episode.

And I think the ever-changing character of Darla provides the best illustration of that reality.

In the original unaired pilot, Julie Benz plays an unnamed vampire who is nonetheless pretty easy to identify with the Darla we'll see in the show proper.  She has no links to Angel or Luke or the Master, because none of these characters even exist yet.  Just like in Welcome to the Hellmouth, she lures an unsuspecting victim into the high school after dark before vamping out and killing him, but by the end of the episode she is dead: gruesomely dispatched (or as gruesomely as the pilot's limited special effects budget allowed) after Willow douses her with holy water.

The two parter Welcome to the Hellmouth / The Harvest expands on her role slightly.  She has a name now, for one thing. She works for the Master, too, but she doesn't at all seem to be his favorite (she's very much subordinate to Luke in both these episodes), and there's no suggestion that she has any special connection to Angel.  (Unsurprisingly, as the show's writers hadn't even decided to make Angel a vampire at this point.)  And her ultimate fate at the end of this two-parter is unclear: just as in the pilot, Willow soaks her with holy water, and then she's ... gone?  Nobody mentions her again, she's not in scenes with the Master in later episodes which logically she should be. I'm pretty sure that, just like in the pilot, we're meant to assume she's dead.

But then Darla gets her first big break.  Angel is, it turns out, a vampire, and he needs some backstory to match.  Julie Benz obviously made a decent enough impression in the first couple of episodes, and nothing she did or said quite ruled her out as Angel's sire, and we never quite see her die. So suddenly she's back,  now the Master's favorite vampire, attacking Buffy's mother in her own home and sowing the seeds of mistrust between Buffy and Angel and ... oh, she's dead again.  Bummer.

Except then in Season 2 Angel's role expands again -- he's not just Buffy's intermittently seen vampire boyfriend anymore, he's the focus of the whole season and he's going to appear in all but one episode.  Of course, he's going to need more backstory (and we're all going to be treated to David Boreanaz's best Irish accent) so ... once again Darla rises from the ashes, albeit this time only in flashbacks.  And the Darla we see in Becoming's flashbacks is once again an evolution of the character we last saw in Season 1's  Angel.  More confident, more complex.  A character that it is honestly difficult to reconcile with the take on the character we saw last season, especially the one we swa in the show's first two episodes.

Anyway, Angel gets sent to hell in Season 2, but not before managing to (somehow) act his way into his own spin-off series.  And yes, that means more flashbacks, and more Darla, and more retcons about the precise nature of her relationship with the Master, but ultimately it means the writers decide to bring Darla back from the dead at the end of the spin-off's first season (for, depending on exactly you count it, arguably the fourth time, though only the first in-universe).  And this iteration of Darla -- both the human Darla we see in the beginning of Angel's second season, and the vampire she becomes again later that season -- is arguably the closest thing there is to a definitive take on the character.  This is the Darla people mean when they talk about her on the show.  Not the mid-level vampire of Welcome to the Hellmouth or the essentially single episode villain of Season 1's Angel, but the real deal.  Darla at her most complicated and rich and alive, a Darla whose history is hopelessly entangled with that of her on-again, off-again lover Angel, a character who provides the driving force for the spin-off show's greatest season.  A character who is, I think, one of the most  interesting to ever appear on that show.

Then the last few episodes of Season 2 completely drop Darla and all trace of the arc she introduced. When she reappears next season (in just a handful of episodes) it's so that her character can be written out of the show via mystical and impossible-by-the show's-previous-rules pregnancy in order for men to feel sad about it (but not for very long), and afterwards everything generally goes to shit.

But then, that tells you quite a lot about the Buffyverse and its creators as well.

[stardomthenightwing]

For anyone wondering why I was off the internet a lot lately, let me explain. @istanstardom gave me advice, and rather than being stubborn like usual and not taking it, I actually took it (Probably because it wasn't parental advice). I actually took time for myself, even though I wanted to be on the internet, and have realized the beauty of the world around me! Ok, just kidding, no, I didn't go outside, I started watching a new show; like what do you take me for, a jock? I'm a total nerd, I haven't seen the sun in years...

Anyways, so I've been watching those cartoon critics lately, and they all say the same thing, "STEVEN UNIVERSE IS GaRbAgE". And usually, the following line pops up, "MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC IS A MUCH BETTER SHOW".

I've been an avid cartoon watcher since I was born, so on my journey of self-discovery, I mean break, I decided to see if MLP was better than SU. Yes, I am a boy, but that doesn't affect my "professional" opinion of this show. Yes, I am also a huge action fan, but that doesn't affect my opinion of this show's genre.

For all my fellow boy followers and SU fans, I watched MLP so you don't have to, and here are my thoughts:

I've only seen four seasons, so I'll only be covering four seasons.

1. The characters are really well-done, and their development is realistic:

- Despite being a kid's show, this show doesn't really seem like it's for kids sometimes. MLP tackles lessons about friendship that I don't think many of us as kids are yet to resolve in our adult lives. In the episode, "Lesson Zero", a problem that I still struggle with is expressed and resolved. It's an episode about overworking yourself and stressing over not getting the perfect grade; a little side lesson about listening to your friend's problems, even if they're strange, is included as well. I still struggle with this overworking yourself problem, and it made me smile to watch Twilight Sparkle understand that she doesn't always have to be perfect with her work. This show does a good job of making sure you clear up all your common flaws before adulthood.

- The Mane Six are given an equal share of character development episodes and are very relatable. I can see a bit of myself in every single one of these characters. I'm a nerd like Twilight Sparkle. I'm a perfectionist like Rarity. I'm an introvert like Fluttershy. I'm an optimist like Rainbow Dash, who likes to read about adventures. I'm surprisingly physically talented like Applejack. And then there's Pinky Pie; I was exactly like her when I was a little kid, but now, not so much.

- One problem with having a lot of filler episodes about character development is that when it’s overdone, it’s not very entertaining. The show introduces that there is a storyline in the first episode, and then, that storyline is ignored for an entire season until we see Princess Luna get a redemption arc in "Luna Eclipsed". Because this is a kid's show that wasn't aiming high at the story element at first with its first season, I can see why the story was structured this way. It is a little weird how Discord showed up out of nowhere in the second season. I've noticed that the only real problems with character development in this show lies with the villains. They kind of just show up, are given a backstory and then are defeated in a two-part episode. There were no mentions of changelings up until the season 2 final, and King Sombra just existed in season 3's first two-part episode. You can defend King Sombra with the argument that little was known about the Crystal Empire, but seriously, that whole kingdom just showed up in season 3's first two-part episode with no warning. Maybe a little mention in the season 2 final from Cadance that she's the princess of the fallen Crystal Empire; that was much needed. We're getting off topic here, but I think this show needs to hint at its story in episodes prior to the season final; that's about it for complaints.

- I really recommend that you watch this show if you can handle a lot of filler episodes. The experience of the story episodes feel more rewarding when you watch them because the filler episodes tie in with the storyline pretty well.

2. This show has really good continuation:

- All I have to say for this section is that things in previous episodes are not forgotten often. This show has incredible continuation, some of it even ties into development. Fluttershy is taught the simple phrase "hop, skip and jump" in the episode "Dragonfly", and this phrase is then repeated in the episode "Feeling Pinkie Keen" to demonstrate how far Fluttershy has come with her anxiety; she's literally the first to hop the rocks, like aren't you proud of her watching that? Honestly, when I watched that scene, it blew my mind! For a kid's show, the writers do pay attention to detail alright!

3. The animation:

- Personally, this show has helped me understand a lot about four-legged anatomy, which is something I'm struggling to draw.

- I like how the characters aren't all outlined in black, they're each given a unique color.

4. The characters:

- Let’s talk about the Mane Six first. My personal favorite is either Twilight Sparkle or Rainbow Dash. I can relate to both a lot, but that’s not the point. As I mentioned earlier, each of these characters are given a balanced amount of development episodes throughout the show.

. Twilight Sparkle starts out as a pony with no friends who isn’t looking for any either and learns the magic of friendship throughout the show. They did her introverted smartness very well and handled her stress and overworking qualities beautifully.

. Rainbow Dash is such a girlboss; she’s the perfect kind of character for a show like this. She’s funny, optimistic and has realistic aspirations. I love characters with big dreams and determination to reach them.

. Fluttershy is probably like the most well-developed character in the show. She starts off not even being able to speak to Twilight (Wow, just like me in real life) and goes all the way to learning to be assertive and just. There’s so much I can say about this character, I could probably even make a whole post talking about her development, but we don’t have time for that.

. Rarity is definitely the inspiration for Pearl in Steven Universe. They are both perfectionist hard workers who make weird noises when in distress. I don’t care what you say, Rebecca has definitely seen MLP. Anyways, Rarity presents herself as a total Karen at first who doesn’t like children. Like, you see how she treats her sister right? But then she learns how to be a good sibling through the power of learning that you have to do things for people sometimes that you don’t want to do. Honestly, great character to add in this show. Rarity helps us older siblings understand how to treat our younger siblings.

. Applejack is another one of those hardworking characters. Her character arc mostly consisted of unhealthy stubbornness in refusal to ask for help, getting over failure, and that’s about it. Applejack didn’t really seem like a character who needed much development, but I feel like her episodes do express some interesting themes.

. Pinky Pie is a party animal who doesn’t really seem like a character in need of development on the surface, but deep below, she actually has a great development arc. It’s very interesting how the writers of the show properly addressed Pinky Pie’s reactions to her responsibilities. Pinky Pie learns how to handle freaking children, that’s a crazy lesson for a character to learn in a kid’s show. She learns betrayal and abandonment and accepts the fact that not everyone needs to like her. For a generally silly character, she shows amazing growth. Almost makes me wonder if she was Spinel inspiration for Rebecca. I mean, Pinky Pie does have a dark side…

- The side characters in the show are done pretty interestingly from minor villains like Trixie to a zebra that speaks in AB rhyme scheme. To be honest, as strange as the world of MLP is, I love it! It has that Earthbound vibe! I only really have a problem with The Cutie Mark Crusaders. For some reason, I just find them annoying at times.

- The villains in this show are kind of, eh. We barely ever see villains appear in filler episodes, and the villains we have in the show don't get enough screen time. I mean, Discord was due for a redemption arc way earlier than when he got it; a season and a half with no mentions or appearances, like seriously, that's long enough for the audience to forget his existence. I kind of also wish we got a Princess Luna song. That moment in "Luna Eclipsed" where Luna goes away from town, thinking that the ponies will never accept her, could have made the perfect moment for a "Drift Away" type song. Oh yeah, King Sombra was also just shoved into season 3 to depict slavery in the show; that villain was just, why?

5. The nostalgia:

- The thing that draws me to this show so much is how nostalgic it makes me feel. I took a break from the internet to go back in time and reflect on how I've changed; I haven't always been an internet guy. This show hits hard because it has that Steven Universe season 1 humor; I felt like I was watching a show again as an adult because I understood all the jokes and references, even though I never watched this show as a kid. MLP is a great show to watch with the family because its content aims for all ages to my surprise.

6. Final Thoughts:

This is a really good show. I kind of wish I watched it when I was just a little bit younger. I've only seen half the show, so I'm not sure if it gets any better (It probably does). It's a great show for anyone to watch, but it lacks things like action and can be a bit girly. The songs in the show are nowhere near as good as Steven Universe though.

Overall, I can't say the show isn't better than Steven Universe because I haven't seen all of it, but so far, Steven Universe is better. SU has some things that MLP doesn't have, and MLP has some things that SU doesn't have. In the end, it comes down to personal preference. And man do I enjoy those SU fight scenes and fusion moments!

Also, I've never said bro so much in my life while watching something. Some of the things that happen in MLP are just... what? And then I'm like, "bro, why did that just happen?"

I'm writing a 1,000-word argument on why MLP is a good show to make myself not look crazy to my followers, what has my life come to? I feel way too passionate about things that really don't matter.

Feel free to reblog this analysis on this show to defend your liking of it!

[techbrossgq-blog]

Specialist Who survey: Bill and the Timelord must smile and bear it in Smile "There's a goliath smiley abattoir, and I'm having this adolescent drive to explode it."

Emojis aren't just the eventual fate of dialect for us destined Earthlings, but on the other hand we're the main poor saps all through the universe who utilize them. This is one of numerous things that the Doctor's expert new buddy Bill Potts gains from her intergalactic coach in Smile, the second portion of arrangement 10 of Doctor Who.

While Nardole (Matt Lucas) is left back at base grumpily guarding the puzzling vault in the entrails of the college and making a blend (NB: for our American perusers, that is some tea), Bill (Pearl Mackie) tells the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) that she needs to go to what's to come. "Why?" he inquires. "I wanna check whether it's upbeat," she says.The Doctor had made a guarantee—as Nardole rushes to remind him—not to stray "off-world" and leave the vault unless it's a crisis. In any case, the gravitational draw to take his new sidekick to far-flung parts of the universe is excessively solid. "Amongst here and my office—before the pot even bubbles—is everything that at any point happened, or ever will," he tells the ever-curious Bill.

Minor robots, named Vardies, that forcefully buzz overhead in inky herds—quickly inferring Black Mirror's scene Hated in the Nation—coordinate emojibot droids to dole out temperament identifications to the Doctor and Bill, who have recently landed in a brilliant, moderate city on a far off planet. We've as of now found in the opening shots of Smile that Kezzia (Kiran L. Dadlani) and Goodthing's (Mina Anwar) failure to smile and bear it, even in the most despondent of conditions, basically doesn't cut it for the Vardies.

The microbots rudely fit the time-traveling team with a specialized gadget that uses their sensory systems as equipment. There's no security by-outline here, and zero sign about who is slurping the information—in a tricky gesture to current-day worries about the level of data a number of us are sharing on the web. "We've quite recently downloaded an update for our ears," the Doctor says. Bill's enchanted by the tech until she ponders, "what happens when you're in the loo?" The inclination for this unsettling experience is set: "emojis, wearable correspondences, we're in the perfect world of vacuous teenagers," the Doctor notes.But as compost produced using human bones descends upon an apparently peaceful garden, it turns out to be clear to the lively match that in case you're despondent, you kick the bucket.

Before we get to that, however, there's some dazzling exchange and japes amongst Bill and the Doctor. The practically musical exchange in the script for Smile, composed by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who penned In the Forest of the Night for arrangement 8 of the science fiction dramatization, helps the watcher turn out to be better familiar with Bill, taking after Mackie's breathtaking character make a big appearance—if not storyline—in The Pilot, this current season's opening scene of Doctor Who.

It would appear we may likewise have a running joke (geddit?) all through this arrangement, with Bill repeating the "penguin with his arse ablaze" line as, from the security of the TARDIS, she watches the Doctor keep running toward risk. It doesn't take her long to take after his way, unresponsively asking him for what good reason he has a Scottish inflection. "I'm not Scottish, I'm furious," the Doctor says, before he topically japes that individuals from Scotland are "everywhere, requesting autonomy on each planet they arrive on."

Maybe the drama in this scene is consider, after all it is called Smile. It surely has a lot of chuckle or cry bite the dust minutes. Be that as it may, the activity is now and again somewhat level, depending very intensely on work to impel the plot forward. It's a fascinating yarn, yet past the brilliant, delightful Valencia setting (the Spanish city's shocking Arts and Science Museum was utilized as the primary area for the second portion in this arrangement), the entire thing could without much of a stretch be transplanted to radio.

Amid a scene that works outwardly, Bill reluctantly snacks on a blue block of green growth that she says notices somewhat fishy. The Doctor reacts: "I met a sovereign made of green growth once. He fancied me."

Solid Vardies confront processing plant setting of fate

It gradually day breaks on the match that the city isn't exactly the garden of Eden imagined by the last people left in the universe, who had planned to colonize it in the wake of sending the Vardies, their emojibots, and after that a setup group to the planet first.

"There's a monster smiley abattoir over yonder, and I'm having this immature drive to explode it," the Doctor tells Bill, before they both come back to the latent forceful emoji droids. In any case, the second some portion of Smile battles to some degree. We discover that the Vardies are the dividers of the city and the first spaceship that brought them here is sunk into the center of the settlement. Cryogenically solidified people are all of a sudden bothered from their units by Bill and the Doctor's exercises as they set out toward the motor space to blow the entire thing up. All of which feels like science fiction by numbers.A young man and a dead lady help Bill—who, in exemplary Who design, is isolated from the Doctor—to make sense of what is truly going on. The emojibots were manufactured just to have a positive mental state, so the minute that a characteristic passing happens, they have no limit with respect to managing sadness.

The Doctor hurries to tell the people, who are tooling up for a battle, that the bots "know when you're excessively miserable, making it impossible to live." The skeleton group was toast since they didn't continue grinning through the "misery tidal wave" as their friends and family were wiped out one-by-one by the Vardies. As the emojibots start distinguishing as an animal categories, the Doctor takes the path of least resistance and hits reset. "He turned it now and again once more," Bill jokes.

The bewildered people are informed that the Vardies are the indigenous lifeform on the planet and they should figure out how to live with them. Be that as it may, it's presumably now safe to express an entire scope of feelings emojis. The fortunate individuals.

One week from now, it would seem that the crap emoji may prove to be handy—given that the Doctor and Bill have passed up a major opportunity for that some tea and are rather remaining on a frosted up stream Thames confronting down an elephant...